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Israeli “Blue and White” Aim to Unseat Netanyahu

Middle East In Focus

Middle East In Focus

Views from the Region

March 11, 2019

One month away from national elections in Israel, and with corruption charges hanging over the embattled prime minister, anti-Netanyahu voters are beginning to coalesce around the new Israel Resilience (Hosen Le'Yisrael) and Yesh Atid alliance, known popularly as the “Blue and White.” The political alliance, which is led by three high-profile ex-military leaders and a journalist, pledges to sweep Netanyahu’s Likud party from office. Indeed, aside from boilerplate campaign promises, what seems to unite the four men and their supporters is their deep dislike for the current prime minister. Netanyahu, for his part, has decided to cast his lot with the extreme right in an effort to shore up his parliamentary coalition. But that gambit has invited the displeasure of various segments of Israeli and diaspora Jews who see the fringe parties as racist and deplorable — even provoking a rare rebuke from the usually Likud-friendly American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

The overrepresentation of military leaders in Israeli politics has raised some eyebrows in local media. As Yaron London points out in an op-ed for Yedioth Ahronoth, “In addition to the three army commanders, 30 of the leading candidates on their list include a number of others who have served in senior positions in the security forces: generals, two police dep. inspectors and the deputy head of the Mossad. If so, no less than half of the leading candidates of the Blue and White Party are ‘security experts,’ but do we need so many?... What does their political success say about Israeli society? The intuitive association is of Latin America. Since their liberation from European rulers, generals and admirals have controlled most of the countries of the continent, and even when they did not openly rule, they have strongly influenced the government.... The similarity is that the military establishment is much too important a player in the political system.”

But, Globes’s Amiram Barkat suspects that even on those issues where the “Blue and White” list have outlined specific policy proposals, there are serious questions about feasibility: “Over the next two weeks, the heads of the Israel Resilience (Hosen Le'Yisrael) and Yesh Atid parties will be busy formulating a platform for their joint ‘Blue and White’ list in the forthcoming Knesset election. Bridging the gaps between the two parties on social and economic policy is not expected to be especially difficult. The promises scattered about by Israel Resilience leaders in the past few days appear in Yesh Atid's platform along with many more, while, despite critical statements on the civil service and other bodies, Yesh Atid's platform contains not a single proposal that might lead to ideological confrontation....The toughest test of the new party will be implementation: so far, no representative of Blue and White has put forward any serious suggestion how even a fraction of the welter of promises can be financed without busting the budget framework.”

Mr. Netanyahu’s has been roundly criticized at home and abroad for his proposed alliance with theocratic-leaning religious parties, with Jerusalem Post’s Douglas Bloomfield characterizing it as a “danger” to Israel: “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dealt a devastating blow to the longtime partnership between American Jews and Israel when he engineered a scheme to bring the disciples of racist Rabbi Meir Kahane into the Knesset and ministries in the next Israeli government.... Netanyahu’s new partners oppose Palestinian statehood, as he does, plus they want to annex the West Bank and Gaza, expel the Arabs and other non-Jews, take over the Temple Mount, ban Jewish intermarriage and replace Israel’s democracy with a form of theocracy.... Netanyahu’s alliances with religious extremists, ultra-nationalists, settlers, racists and his policies toward Palestinians have opened a widening schism between Israel and American Jewry. It is time for responsible American Jewish leaders to do the right thing and let Netanyahu know he is sacrificing the future of US-Israel relations on the altar of his own political expediency, and it will not be tolerated.”

About MEPC

The Middle East Policy Council is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to contribute to American understanding of the political, economic and cultural issues that affect U.S. interests in the Middle East.